Thousands of public sector workers in northern Ireland braved the cold Thursday to take to the picket lines calling for pay parity with colleagues in Britain.
Education, health and transport workers walked out in what has been billed as the biggest day of strike action in the history of the North, with an estimated 170,000 workers on strike.
Seán Wallace, a teacher at St. Patrick's Primary School in North Belfast said: "Pay parity is very important, particularly when other workers across these islands are earning on average £6,000 more a year.
"That's very detrimental across the board, not just to teachers but to families who are finding it tough financially. People are under pressure financially and for myself, in the education sector it's very important to have the best funding for education.
"Funding has been drastically impacted and cut over the last 10 years and specifically affecting SEN children. We're out today for pay and for funding across the board, from education, to infrastructure to health."
Speaking on the decision of the DUP to yet again continue their boycott of the Executive, which effectively blocks the financial package on offer from the British government, and which would resolve union pay demands, Mr. Wallace said: "For workers, the Irish Sea border has always existed and it exists in pay parity. We earn less than England, Scotland and Wales and people are finding it very tough. Stormont needs to be reformed, if there's not going to be direct rule or joint authority then there needs to be reform so one party can't stop pay for public sector workers.
"Children are being seriously impacted. I see it in the classroom and we are seriously underfunded when it comes to Special Educational Needs and you reap what you sow, in ten to 15 years time society is going to be under serious pressure and that's what we're trying to get across today."
Edel Coulter, a nurse out on strike today with Royal College of Nursing (RCN) colleagues outside the City Hospital, said: "The response from the public today has been incredible. Even if our politicians yesterday did not make history by going back into Stormont, we have been making history out on the picket line today.
"Currently we are pushing for pay parity with England. Our colleagues in England receive on average £1,500 per year more than us and in Scotland it's higher still. Our aim is pay parity and also safe staffing.
"We do not currently have enough skilled nurses on our wards looking after our patients. Staff morale is at an all time low at the moment and politicians got their pay rise in April but we are still waiting on ours. We're the most trusted profession and we feel we deserve to be treated with the respect that we work so hard for.
"We work additional shifts, through our breaks unpaid and we put every patient ahead of ourselves and we would like our politicians to be able to do the same for once.
"I'm incredibly frustrated and I believe the UK government need to change the legislation to stop our pay being used as a political pawn in whatever game of political chess they're trying to play. We deserve to be paid and be paid appropriately and it's an absolute disgrace that we're being used as leverage."
